We are what we are. We struck gold with Frank Beamer. A guy who could do it all without a lot of support because of who he was. He's one of the winningest coaches of all time, in the Hall of Fame, precisely because of how special he is. Whit Babcock hasn't done anything negative, he's done everything that VT could expect him to do. In the two primary non-football sports, he has hired Buzz Williams, Mike Young, Kenny Brooks and Megan Duffy. The jury may be out on Duffy so far, but the rest all took VT men's and women's hoops to successes we wouldn't previously dream about. Sweet 16? ACC title thrashing UNC and Duke in the semis and final? 5 NCAA tournaments over a 6 year period in men's hoops? (Are you kidding me??) A #1 seed and Final Four in the women's tournament? Check. Check. Check. And Duffy looks like a good one so far. Ahhh, then there's football. Whit hired Justin Fuente. People seem to forget that Fuente was THE homerun hire outside of Tom Herman that coaching cycle. And Fuente could coach, he really could. He took Beamer's players and immediately had VT in the ACC Title game. 19 wins in 2 years. He just wasn't Beamer. He was an introvert, he wasn't affable, and he didn't realize that the success Beamer had at VT was because of Beamer, not because of VT. And he couldn't go and get the players he needed to keep VT's level of play high. So when Fuente failed to be Beamer, what did Whit do? He went looking for another Beamer. Makes sense, except for the fact that lightning very rarely strikes twice in the same place. Brent Pry is an attempt to hire the same type of coach who took VT to the mountaintop, nothing less. Unlike Fuente, Pry still has a shot, because he still has the personality of Beamer that is evidently necessary to succeeding at VT. And Sands.....good grief, what do Hokie fans expect from him? He's done magnificent work leading VT forward as an academic institution. Enrollment way up, VT in the Top 50 overall universities for the first time ever, VTC Medical School, Innovation Campus close to DC, partnership with Amazon, what the heck more do you expect from him? I get the feeling that VT football fans think Sands sits in his office all day doing nothing but fielding calls from influential VT alums, imploring him to make easy fixes to VT's athletic department that will help the football program: "Just raise more money Tim, it's so easy!" "Just simply fire John Ballein, Tim! The wins will come, when the Ballein dynasty falls!" "Tim, all you need to do is spend an additional $30M every year, it doesn't matter that you don't have it! Everybody is doing it! Look at Maryland! Why can't we be just like Maryland?" "Tim, the easy fix is to make the P2 invite Virginia Tech! Why haven't you made them invite VT yet, Tim?" No, Sands just laughs, Purdue and Cal banners flowing behind him, while he snacks on cake and sips wine, never touching his pinky finger to the goblet. He thinks maybe now he will try to lobby the BOV to change VT's burnt orange color to gold, in honor of Cal and Purdue. Maroon and Gold! Yes, that will be his legacy at VT. You gotta let go of that crap, he's doing a great job leading the university, and he's probably just doing EXACLTY what the BOV wants him to do regarding leading the football program, because he doesn't have time to do anything else, because he's.....doing his job! He's letting Whit make solid - but not elite - hires and keeping VT in the black financially. *GASP!* Look, since Beamer left, VT Athletics has become EXACTLY what it was prior to Beamer. Solid fanbase with a mediocre football team and some exciting basketball teams from time to time. But all in all...not much to see here. If we were a sleeping giant because of our fanbase prior to Beamer waking us up, well, we're snoozing away again, just waiting on success to find us. But at least the University is in good hands. ** Edited by hokieZ71 at 8/3/2025, 10:12:16 AM